Then and now...

Passion is the most important weapon you can carry. It can be destructive when it drives the wrong motives, but it is the most powerful driver of ambition. "The Mindset of Opportunity", is about reinventing yourself by purposefully investing into YOU; surrounding yourself with Hitta's, Diamonds, unbreakable motivation, drive, ambition, and passion. It's mind boggling that people will invest in something once, and if it doesn't work they'll throw the opportunity away. This is why the "few" succeed; the few that are willing to be trendsetters, trailblazers, and front-runners.

The last two weeks, I've had to experience watching the person that has impacted my life the most live the last days of her life. The other day I went to see my great grandmother, Mammo, in the hospital, for what likely is the last time. On the way there, I was truly struggling with my emotion; trying to prep myself for that final visit. When I walked into her room and saw her in the hospital bed, a sense of peace came over me. Here was a woman that lived her life with passion. The type of passion that kept her moving mountains in her life.

Granted, she's not a millionaire; she won't leave behind any estate; if she owned any diamonds I never saw her wear them. But, she had passion about LIVING. This woman survived a decade of dialysis, major surgeries, heart attacks, major strokes- and yet, she's still negotiating with God on what her date will be when she leaves this world! That's passion; that let's me know that anything is possible if you truly believe in it.

When I was a little girl, she [Mammo] once told me that crying shows your weakness; those words have stuck with me all my life. At the time she was telling me not to cry because I didn't get what I wanted. So what, I didn't get my way that day. She wanted me to understand that weakness comes from the very idea that every time something doesn't go your way you pout about it and give-up. That's not living.

There's no idea in this world that can't be accomplished. Even the most ruthless rulers accomplish controlling the minds of people; their passion drove them. Imagine you can see the date of the end of your life. If you could see that date, what do you think your mindset would be about your life? How you lived it? Who and what you'll miss? All the things you wish you'd never done? All the things you should have done? Why not LIVE now doing all the things you wished you'd done when you envisioned that date.

The principles of passion: 1.) dedication to growing, 2.) commitment to living everyday, and 3.) determination not to fail. If you can embody these principles your willpower to succeed will never fail you. I learned that the word passion comes from the Latin word "pati", meaning to suffer. After learning this, it opened my eyes to what the word truly stands for. If you're passionate about something doesn't it feel like suffering when you don't have it?